Chavhorse
Well-Known Member
Well Diva as she is now known has been at the yard for 6 days.
She has settled well into her stall and spends each night flat out in her lovely deep bed so she must be feeling secure in there.
She is eating well and we have now upped her grain a little in preparation for her starting proper work tomorrow, she is devouring a huge haynet each night and her lunchtime haynet, tonight she will be given the hot linseed porridge for the first time and I am sure she will love it. I will admit I spoil her by leaving an apple and 3 carrots under her haynet in her stall, which she seems to appreciate and this is the first thing she heads to when we put her in.
We are struggling a bit with getting her out with other horses, the only other mare at the yard is very much an Alpha and Diva is finding even walking past her stable a bit of a scary ordeal, she has gone out for a few hours on her own with one of the higher ranking geldings but will not interact but he has just been placed on box rest for 4 weeks so that will be a no go for a while.
However she does actually seem quite content to be left to her own devices in the small roundpen with horses on either side of her that she can see. Poor lass this is her first move since she was born 7 years ago so I guess it must be a bit like being parachuted onto the moon for her.
She is now a lot calmer being led around the yard, she was very very snorty for the first few days but today I took her out of the roundpen tied her in the main yard to groom her then when we had finished I led her into the covered section of the yard and she was very calm with no snorting so we are making progress.
Her leading leaves a lot to be desired and she does tend to need to be in my pocket and her first instinct when she is worried is to try to walk into me, she was getting very stressed on Friday and mum had to get very firm and say NO BACK OFF bless her she just looked at me as if to say sorry
She had her first bath yesterday, took us 20 minutes to get into the wash place (well it is a bit closed in so I cant really blame her!) but with a slow approach of two steps forward, stop, two steps sideways, two forwards etc (she never pulled back once) we made it in and once I started to run the warm water over her she just sighed and relaxed into her bubble bath, she now looks spectacular, I thought she was a light Palomino but after getting all the dirt and scurf out of her coat she is in fact a beautiful golden colour with a pure white mane and tail.
Her only other thing was on Wednesday when I took her out from the Gelding she was turned out with she had a separation fit up at the yard and refused to stand still, I crossed tied her and left her to her own devices for 15 minutes (well I lurked out of sight so if there was a problem I could get there and sort it out) and after a 5 minute stress she calmed down and stood still, when I returned to her she was very much sorry for being a prat mum and stood calmly and quietly whilst I groomed her.
Tomorrow we start the serious stuff, some groundwork to get her leading skills polished up, working on bending and giving her face and introducing her to double lines with a nice stretchy tail bandage tied to a roller so she gets the idea of something behind her legs, next week we will alternate groundwork with riding her.
So all in all I am delighted with her, she is very loving and we spent a lovely two hours today in the roundpen together in the sun, me sitting on a stool reading a book and her with her head on my shoulder fast asleep, she loves attention and we have nicknamed her flibble as she flibbles you with her lips when you are grooming her, for some reason she has also become very keen on licking and flibbling my husbands head:huh:
It is all a lovely voyage of discovery, I am learning something new about her every day, scariest thing so far? That at only just 15hh she fits all the rugs of my old 17hh gelding, she really is a big girl
Apologies I have been very remiss and not got any photos this week, I will rectify next week I promise.
She has settled well into her stall and spends each night flat out in her lovely deep bed so she must be feeling secure in there.
She is eating well and we have now upped her grain a little in preparation for her starting proper work tomorrow, she is devouring a huge haynet each night and her lunchtime haynet, tonight she will be given the hot linseed porridge for the first time and I am sure she will love it. I will admit I spoil her by leaving an apple and 3 carrots under her haynet in her stall, which she seems to appreciate and this is the first thing she heads to when we put her in.
We are struggling a bit with getting her out with other horses, the only other mare at the yard is very much an Alpha and Diva is finding even walking past her stable a bit of a scary ordeal, she has gone out for a few hours on her own with one of the higher ranking geldings but will not interact but he has just been placed on box rest for 4 weeks so that will be a no go for a while.
However she does actually seem quite content to be left to her own devices in the small roundpen with horses on either side of her that she can see. Poor lass this is her first move since she was born 7 years ago so I guess it must be a bit like being parachuted onto the moon for her.
She is now a lot calmer being led around the yard, she was very very snorty for the first few days but today I took her out of the roundpen tied her in the main yard to groom her then when we had finished I led her into the covered section of the yard and she was very calm with no snorting so we are making progress.
Her leading leaves a lot to be desired and she does tend to need to be in my pocket and her first instinct when she is worried is to try to walk into me, she was getting very stressed on Friday and mum had to get very firm and say NO BACK OFF bless her she just looked at me as if to say sorry
She had her first bath yesterday, took us 20 minutes to get into the wash place (well it is a bit closed in so I cant really blame her!) but with a slow approach of two steps forward, stop, two steps sideways, two forwards etc (she never pulled back once) we made it in and once I started to run the warm water over her she just sighed and relaxed into her bubble bath, she now looks spectacular, I thought she was a light Palomino but after getting all the dirt and scurf out of her coat she is in fact a beautiful golden colour with a pure white mane and tail.
Her only other thing was on Wednesday when I took her out from the Gelding she was turned out with she had a separation fit up at the yard and refused to stand still, I crossed tied her and left her to her own devices for 15 minutes (well I lurked out of sight so if there was a problem I could get there and sort it out) and after a 5 minute stress she calmed down and stood still, when I returned to her she was very much sorry for being a prat mum and stood calmly and quietly whilst I groomed her.
Tomorrow we start the serious stuff, some groundwork to get her leading skills polished up, working on bending and giving her face and introducing her to double lines with a nice stretchy tail bandage tied to a roller so she gets the idea of something behind her legs, next week we will alternate groundwork with riding her.
So all in all I am delighted with her, she is very loving and we spent a lovely two hours today in the roundpen together in the sun, me sitting on a stool reading a book and her with her head on my shoulder fast asleep, she loves attention and we have nicknamed her flibble as she flibbles you with her lips when you are grooming her, for some reason she has also become very keen on licking and flibbling my husbands head:huh:
It is all a lovely voyage of discovery, I am learning something new about her every day, scariest thing so far? That at only just 15hh she fits all the rugs of my old 17hh gelding, she really is a big girl
Apologies I have been very remiss and not got any photos this week, I will rectify next week I promise.
